Calculated Risk Taking

13Dec09

Risk Taker

There is a man out there playing with people’s lives….he operates on people’s brains who are given the “inoperable tumor” diagonosis. He will cut, poke and prod inside someone’s sick brain in hopes to make the yucky stuff go away, and permit the human being whose brain is being chopped a new chance to live a life. He is Charlie Teo, neurosurgeon.

After seeing him speak at the Mind and Its Potential Conference in Sydney, Oz, Charlie struck me with his dedication to his patients, and also to his development of innovative surgical techniques. He is a “Brain Surgeon Pioneer“, yet many of his peers loathe him due to his ‘cowboy’ techniques that go against other established techniques for brain surgery treatment. Controversial.

As an educator, was really struck me and stayed with me is the fact that HIS IS A RISK TAKER, a Maverick. So was the master himself Einstein, Darwin and Mandela…all risk takers, now heroes. They are thinkers who take action and calculate their skills into new strategies to create new solutions, prove theories and “we” benefit from their calculated risk taking.

We as educators encourage and support our students to think out of the box and be creative–CREATIVITY is the highest form of critical thinking and learning, so Thank You Dr. Teo, your snipping and snapping and thoughtfully applying your skills into innovating new surgical techniques in order to help people. Your teachers should be proud!!